(Edit 14 January 2020 ~ I deleted the part where I conjectured that engine RPMs were a factor in the rapid wear of the rod. Any moron would realize that the filler is not subject to the pressures and flows of operational cycles. When the piston is out of TDC, the ball (and I'm refering to the head valve ball,) is seated and filler pressure is system pressure. When the ball, at TDC, displaces the ball, the rod is still against the sealing seat in the nipple, as the pressure is still considerable. Sorry I don't have any moron to write for the annex ~ just me, a special kind of moron. When I refer to educated guesses you can infer to my level and success in education)
I was working on a Davis/Carbonic .049 CO2 conversion Saturday and Sunday, and the owner’s primary complaint was the tank would not take a CO2 charge. On these Brown fillers, and you know how fond I am of them, instead of a ball it has a rod to stop the outflow of gas/liquid when you disconnect the charger from the filler, hopefully keeping the CO2 in the tank.
I was working on a Davis/Carbonic .049 CO2 conversion Saturday and Sunday, and the owner’s primary complaint was the tank would not take a CO2 charge. On these Brown fillers, and you know how fond I am of them, instead of a ball it has a rod to stop the outflow of gas/liquid when you disconnect the charger from the filler, hopefully keeping the CO2 in the tank.
In this particular
one, the rod bit was just a teeny chunk, performing no sealing function. [See
photo]
So how does it get
this way? I don’t know for sure, but I can make a couple of educated guesses.
The Carbonic conversions were the largest of the modern CO2 motors, and were
capable of tremendous speeds and rpms equivalent to the glow versions. The .049
in displacement is over 13 times the Telco, with a slightly shorter relative
stroke. Look at the size of that tank and the huge plumbing and you’ll see what
it’s capable of.
I believe the rod just hammered itself
like hard cheese on the aluminum ‘bail’ that retains it in the bore of the (aluminum) nipple and keeps it from going all the way
back and blocking the orifice in the filler bell [in towards the tank and
engine.] The ball in the head valve had a considerable amount of soft crud on
the ball seat, causing a considerable amount of leakage from the head when it
was supposed to be sealed. One thing I have noticed as I take these type
fillers apart is that the end of the rod that seals against the hole in the
nipple usually is “belled” out somewhat, larger than the inboard end. I can
only assume resulting from the constant repetitive contacts during a run. I
believe I read in one of the Mueller articles that the static pressure on the
valve seat is approximately 4 pounds at 800 PSI at standard day ambient
temperature. That’s a hell of a lot for a tiny, non-steel rod made of an indeterminate
material.
Moral: Brown filler don’t work? Unscrew that nipple
and take a good look at its component parts.
